House in Obama is for a family of a president of a company that is located at the opposite side of a road. The site is near the beach, and it has some climatic problems such as damaging from sea breeze.

Because of the site condition, the client wanted their residence space closed to the outside environment.

The building has piloti because of keeping some space for cars as it was used as a parking lot.

Although skinny steel structure was considered for the piloti, it was designed as Reinforced concrete structure to create more friendly environment for old patients who are high rates for the clinic.

The structure answers both conditions to have closed residential space and open parking area.

The construction at the second floor is metal structure that can be a wide span because of the exterior walls as it was designed for truss beams.

Kitchen space, bathrooms, study corners, storage and so on are placed at the boarder line of the building area.

Other rooms used as main space of a residence, such as living space, bed room, kids rooms are located inner area to protect from cold air from outside.

The unique design of the house is inside courtyards.

The gardens are placed between the rooms and separate each room.

The walls at the courtyards are glass-framed walls, and they create one continuous space of the house, especially when they are opened and connect all space.

Because of the courtyards, elements of the rooms and gardens are mixed and interact each other to create space that is hard to define neither inside nor outside.

We believe the relationship would create more possibilities of architecture that could be more open and closer to the outside environment.

Love this...very clever and the exterior is so completely turned on its head when compared to the open internal spaces.

But please...how much longer are people going to submit projects without floor plans and sections? Buildings arent objects, like chairs and lights also featured on this site. Please include the other drawings so one can have a more clear cut idea of the functionality of the buildings as well.

guglo

no plans.... any drawings??????

T Sandwich

Is this really Obama's house? This is very strange. I am surprised he would want to spend his days off in Japan when he's from Hawaii. Either way the design is very elegant. Seeing a plan would be nice, if nothing else than to see how they handled the kids rooms. Bravo!!! -- another excellent project from an outstanding office!!!

eric Guttenberg

The house is located in Obama, Japan. Obama's don't live in Obama.

roman kralya

Outward things become so unpleasant that people try to isolate themselves from it as much as possible....

It's a New Orleans Shotgun on huge stilts!! It would have been nice to see something more like this from the Make it Right designers!!

beeza

Do these guys sleep?!

El Grecus

I know someone who is good friends with Makoto Tanijiri, the principal of Suppose. Tanijiri is obviously quite ambitious and hard-working. They produce an amazing amount of quality work each year. He has designed AND built dozens of houses and he has yet to hit 40 years old. An enviable career by any standards. Interestingly, the main office is in Hiroshima with a relatively new satellite office in Tokyo. It's rare for an office to be this successful coming out of somewhere other than Tokyo.

It's also refreshing to see an absence of the "how could you put the bathroom so close to the kitchen!" or "those stairs look dangerous!" comments. By Western standards, the Japanese have a long history of unorthodox programmatic adjacencies and code requirements (particularly for residences). And clearly Suppose's clients are unorthodox, so it should be no surprise that they approve unorthodox designs.

If you haven't already, pick up a copy of "In Praise of Shadows" by Junichiro Tanizaki. The essay in praise of the outhouse alone is worth the read. Funny and thought-provoking. It'll offer a small glimpse into the mindset of the Japanese.

Pierre Sinsua

seems that tokya has been over populated, privacy has become priority so windows have gone vertical, somehow

JIIM

I want to live there.

Helen

From the exterior, this house looks so very much like the FEMA trailers that were all over New Orleans after the storm.
Its pleasantly surprising to see how open and airy it is on the inside.

DocHill1

very nice home! But I wished they could give some sort of cost. For today people want a concept that appeals to the and their wallets.

jasneko

I also like the design... that is for the most part thanx to very nice shots.
Kudos for the photographer as wel...for making the interior even more appealing